Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Look Mom, I'm Paper Piecing!

A few months ago, I thought I'd like to try something new, so bought three little paper piecing patterns to make as birthday/baby/friendship gifts for people who like owls, foxes, and elephants respectively. But nobody told me to start small and work your way up with paper piecing, and none of the helpful websites had the same, crumpled, mismatched and sad looking items that I had. So, I threw them into a drawer and went away to sulk.

To my horror, this month my Wee Bee Canadian wanted us to make flying circle of geese blocks with the dreaded paper piecing. Not only did I have churn dash issues last week, but this week my knickers were definitely in a knot just thinking about starting to paper piece. So, I looked at the approved web site (http://chasingcottons.blogspot.ca/2011/10/circle-of-geese-block-tutorial.html), picked up my papers and started one step at a time. I have to say, that it was an excellent tutorial.

To show how inept I was, it hadn't occurred to me to number the pieces on the wrong side too, so no wonder I got frustrated. This time I cut my pieces really big to eliminate the constant "wrong size,

wrong angle" issues I'd had before. Strangely, it all seemed to go well! Then I got cocky; I started eyeballing instead of checking and then, of course, my very last piece was wrong, very wrong. So, I threw it across the room and went away to sulk.

Next day, same place, different time. I do own a seam ripper, so I was able to repair the offending piece, but then I was on a roll and nothing went wrong the rest of the morning. I made four squares, sewed them together and ended up with an actual flying geese block.

The only problem was removing the paper, when I realized that I should have anchored some of the starting points to stop them loosening up. I was able to fix that before sewing it all together and I'm mighty pleased! I might actually dig out the owl, fox, and elephant patterns and give them a whirl.

So that's it for sewing this week. Yet again we were hit by a massive snowstorm with high wind and drifts, so we were housebound for one whole day, then digging out another. My husband is very fed up with plowing the yard!

14 comments:

Lovely flying geese blocks! Thanks for being honest about the sulking - I thought I was the only one. I still have a border to put on a quilt that I cut too short (twice). I threw it in the closet and went away to sulk.The lesson I learned was not to quilt when tired, not even if it meant finishing a project.

Good for you for sticking with it. It's just like anything else, it takes time and patience and learning. I have always cut bigger when paper piecing because I'm not good at figuring angles and sizes.Spring is here today. Hang in there.

Very nice block! I understand those paper piecing frustrations. My husband told me for the sake of my own health I probably shouldn't do it anymore, but I kept with it anyway and figured it out. I couldn't let the paper win! We are getting another snow storm here today too. On the first day of spring even!

I had to come visit and see your snow photos - I looked through some other posts as well and love your socks! I really do need to learn how to knit socks I do love the hand knit pair that someone gave me, they are so comfortable. I hope your winter goes away soon